Rangers top Senators, 8-4, as Lundqvist sets goalie mark

Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist making a save during third-period action against the Senators on Tuesday night.

OTTAWA – Luckily for the Rangers, the Senators’ defensive effort was worse than theirs Tuesday night. It wasn’t exactly the sterling performance Henrik Lundqvist would have preferred as he passed Mike Richter and set the franchise record with his 302nd regular-season victory.

Of course, the Rangers, who jumped over the Blue Jackets into third place in the Metropolitan Division with an 8-4 win at the Canadian Tire Centre, are desperate enough for points to not sweat how they’re earned.

“We’ll enjoy the two points — that’s the bottom line — but we can nitpick,” Rick Nash said after scoring two goals. “When you want to be a great team, you nitpick, and we’ve got to tighten it up defensively.”

The Rangers (37-29-4) set a season-high for goals on 39 shots and on the strength of a four-goal second period and awful goaltending by the Senators’ Robin Lehner. Derick Brassard also had two goals and Lundqvist made 35 saves.

“It’s an incredible feeling, a proud feeling,” Lundqvist, 32, said of setting the team mark after failing to do so despite 28 saves in Sunday’s 1-0 loss to the visiting Sharks. “This franchise has been around so long, it’s kind of surreal when you think about.”

The win opened a three-game road trip that next takes the Rangers, who now have 78 points, to Columbus on Friday. The Blue Jackets lost, 3-1, at Carolina on Tuesday – “My brothers did their job,” said defenseman Marc Staal of the Hurricanes’ Eric and Jordan Staal – so the

Rangers are two points ahead of them. The fourth-place Blue Jackets have played two fewer games.

The Flyers maintained their hold on second place with a 3-2 overtime win against the visiting Blackhawks. The Rangers trail them by one point, but the Flyers also have played two fewer games.

But the Rangers, who had scored just a combined six goals in losing three of their previous four, can’t play like this defensively over their remaining 12 regular-season games.

“Obviously we gave up too many but we scored more than they did,” said Mats Zuccarello, who had two assists. “We got a little shooters’ mentality and we got pucks deep. It was an important game; we needed the win.”

The Rangers’ second-period barrage began at 8:56 as Carl Hagelin fed Brassard cutting from the right and Brassard was able to beat Lehner to the short side to tie it at 2 as the goalie didn’t hug the post well enough.

Senators defenseman Chris Phillips’ poor decision to pass the puck from the right corner in his zone to the low slot, where it got caught in Jason Spezza’s skates, led to Benoit Pouliot making it 3-2 at 15:48. Pouliot had gone 10 games without a goal.

Lehner’s worst moment came as he whiffed with his arm on John Moore’s unscreened shot from the left boards, giving the Rangers a 4-2 lead at 18:44.

Finally, Ryan McDonagh connected from the left point with 15.3 seconds remaining with a shot that deflected off defenseman Marc Methot’s stick.

Nash, who had gone five games without a goal, had tied it at 1 with a short-handed goal at 8:02 of the first period and added an empty-netter at 17:30 of the third period.

Lehner was pulled after two periods but reinserted after Nathan Lawson was hurt at 9:52 of the third. Lawson allowed two goals on 10 shots.

The Senators (28-27-13) clearly miss starter Craig Anderson, who was out with an upper-body injury.